Human Rights. As always, one of the biggest problems in the world is how we administer Human Rights, whether we have Human Rights, whether we all deserve Human Rights.
Today my thinking has taken a less direct approach... The British National Anthem.
First, before I get right into it, I'm gonna state a few points:
I've stopped posting "controversial" statuses on facebook, because I have family there, basically. So from here on in, instead of posting Stuff which is too long for statuses on here, I'm going to post all the long statuses I think of. Which means I'll have a massive influx of content to share, and also means I need to add a new rule to my blog, which will be, for posterity, placed in my tag line bit; it is this:
I don't want you reading this if you're going to take an active offence and request my silence. I am posting here because, as declared in Article 19 of the UDHR; which I have posted in full on a number of previous posts, I am expressing freely. I invite and encourage all people to do the same, but to request my silence because I have somehow offended or upset you cannot and will not be tolerated. So, to further this statement, all comments shall no longer be allowed to be posted on my facebook link, but through the comment section on this blog. I'm fairly sure you don't need to be signed in to your google account to leave a comment, but I might be wrong.
With all that out the way (which I may have missed stuff out of) let's get down to business!
We are a secular country, largely. Our parliament is free from religious bias. Markedly, we have recently allowed gay marriage, and are all the better for it. And yet, as a secular human, and an outspoken at best atheist, I find it garing and troubling to hear our National Anthem: God Save the Queen.
And here is why:
What does our Queen really do that warrants her special protection from a Deity I don't believe in? As a Christian woman, surely the song should be "God save Britain", as God specifically states we should not worship false idols? As an atheist, I feel excluded by our anthem, because I don't feel God should have any mention. My feelings for national pride and monarchy aside, it's exclusive and alienating to hear those words.
One final point on my blog rules: I will, as much as is possible, only post questions. If I post a statement, it will be fact, and I will do my best to back it up with sources. If not, I will make it clear that it is my opinion. Otherwise, my blogs will be posed as questions, for the large part.
Anyway, with all that said and done, here's to a long and typeful future!
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
The last post... For at least a while.
This marks the end as I know it of this blog. I may in the future post, but the posts won't be what they are now, or have been. My sanity has come into question, and it's best if I hang up my typing fingers for a while. A lot of things have come about in the recent time, and it's gotten a bit too much. I'm thinking about how best to make this, but I can't decide; my two biggest choices being as uncynical as possible, and my other being to get it all out of my system. I'll see how it goes as I progress.
In the short of it, recent happenings in Britain, and my 'involvement' in them (I'm not involved, I've just involved myself out of perhaps ignorance, perhaps a genuine concern for all parties involved) has caused a plethora of problems, the most prominent being almost losing my non-homeless status.
The long story is this:
Recently, in the last week or so, a soldier was murdered by 2 extremists, who are claimed to be muslim, and also black. The didn't just kill him, they hacked him apart, beheading him. They claim to have done it because he has killed muslims in Afghanistan. An eye for an eye mentality. The whole thing is quite ironic. Because in response to this, people are calling for an eye for an eye as punishment for these people. This is why that is the wrong way to think. But no one can see that. And I'm crazy.
I posted a number of statuses, when I should have been posting blogs, about how we shouldn't focus purely on them being muslim as the problem, and how there is another side to it, but that's wrong. In Britain, if you're not 100% undying to the cause, you're dead weight and deserve not to be there. As cynical as it might be, I would compare that mentality to fundamentalism. With one final word on fundamentalism, it's not that they are fundamental we disagree with, it's that they pursue the wrong goal. No one bats an eyelid at Anders Breivik, a point which was made, who was the Christian fundamentalist who killed 69 people in Norway. That's a crazy person's mentality, though. It's insane to think that the life of a white British soldier is less than the life of 69 Norwegians.
There's a great deal of contradiction going on. A lack of perspective, perhaps. Or maybe, if what I'm being told is right, I am just mentally unstable. Maybe it is OK for one group of people to do what they want, while the rest of the world follows them.
Anyway, I don't have much else to say. If I decide that coming back is "safe" and I'm not "risking petrol bombs being thrown through my window", I'll come back. I'm going doctors soon, they'll give me psychiatric evaluation and we'll see what happens.
In the short of it, recent happenings in Britain, and my 'involvement' in them (I'm not involved, I've just involved myself out of perhaps ignorance, perhaps a genuine concern for all parties involved) has caused a plethora of problems, the most prominent being almost losing my non-homeless status.
The long story is this:
Recently, in the last week or so, a soldier was murdered by 2 extremists, who are claimed to be muslim, and also black. The didn't just kill him, they hacked him apart, beheading him. They claim to have done it because he has killed muslims in Afghanistan. An eye for an eye mentality. The whole thing is quite ironic. Because in response to this, people are calling for an eye for an eye as punishment for these people. This is why that is the wrong way to think. But no one can see that. And I'm crazy.
I posted a number of statuses, when I should have been posting blogs, about how we shouldn't focus purely on them being muslim as the problem, and how there is another side to it, but that's wrong. In Britain, if you're not 100% undying to the cause, you're dead weight and deserve not to be there. As cynical as it might be, I would compare that mentality to fundamentalism. With one final word on fundamentalism, it's not that they are fundamental we disagree with, it's that they pursue the wrong goal. No one bats an eyelid at Anders Breivik, a point which was made, who was the Christian fundamentalist who killed 69 people in Norway. That's a crazy person's mentality, though. It's insane to think that the life of a white British soldier is less than the life of 69 Norwegians.
There's a great deal of contradiction going on. A lack of perspective, perhaps. Or maybe, if what I'm being told is right, I am just mentally unstable. Maybe it is OK for one group of people to do what they want, while the rest of the world follows them.
Anyway, I don't have much else to say. If I decide that coming back is "safe" and I'm not "risking petrol bombs being thrown through my window", I'll come back. I'm going doctors soon, they'll give me psychiatric evaluation and we'll see what happens.
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